Employee engagement strategies pay off

Employee engagement strategies pay offWhat’s the secret to achieving Aon Best Employer status five years running? A commitment to an inclusive and rewarding workplace, says Wood & Grieve Engineers CEO José Granado.Each year, human resource consultancy Aon Hewitt conducts research into what makes Australia’s best employers stand out from the crowd, accrediting qualifying companies and naming an annual ‘best of the best’.In 2016, 403 employees at Wood & Grieve Engineers (WGE) were benchmarked against 92,0 employees in 140 other organisations in Australia and New Zealand. Aon Hewitt ranked WGE in an exclusive list of 14 ‘best employers’, including Cisco Systems, Blackmores, Estée Lauder and SEEK. WGE was the only engineering consulting firm to make the list.According to Reetta Makinen, engagement practice leader in Australia and New Zealand for Aon Hewitt, which conducts the annual survey, best employers are confronted by the same set of market forces and economic circumstances that challenge all organisations. “However, they drive increased discretionary effort from their workforce as a result of more effective, outcomes-focussed talent management practices,” Makinen says.Granado says the award recognises a unique workplace philosophy that has been in place since Tony Wood and Kip Grieve established the company in 1961.”Our company founders built an organisation that valued people and the skills and talents they bring to their roles,” he says.”We have worked hard to ensure our work environment facilitates and drives engagement, with our unique culture being at the centre of everything we do.”Survey results found WGE has cultivated high levels of employee engagement, despite pressures of external market conditions and internal change. Strong leadership, brand alignment and a high performance culture were other factors in WGE’s success.Granado says employee health and wellbeing is a central pillar of the organisation’s management approach. Group fitness and pilates classes, running and cycling clubs, inter-office football competitions and massages are just some of the activities on offer. Regular team building events encourage people to get together away from their desks, while regular family-focused events promote work/life balance. “Most importantly, we use the Aon Survey as an opportunity to gain feedback from our employees – and we act when we identify areas for improvement.” Learn more about WGE’s innovative and best-practice multi-discipline engineering services: www.wge.com.au